By Atkinson, James

London: Henry Graves & Company; J.W. Allen & Co.; and Day & Haghe, 1842, First Edition. Large folio – 55.2 × 38.6 cm. Publisher’s green morocco-backed green moiré boards, gilt title on the front board and morocco spine, blind stamped ruling and double-gilt ruling on covers, cream endpapers, re-backed with strengthened gutters, some foxing as usual, but a very good copy indeed. Spine shows rubbing and wear but complete, original covers worn at extremities. Single-tint lithographic title page and 25 similar highly detailed plates, lithographic dedication leaf, letter press leaf of descriptions printed in blue in double column – all original guard-sheets in place.

One of the finest illustrated books on Afghanistan, the plates depicting a selection of superb views on the march – Bolan Pass, Quetta, Khojak Pass, Kandahar, and Kabul. James Atkinson, (1780-1852), a surgeon in the Bengal service, was chosen as Superintending Surgeon to the Army of the Indus during the First Afghan War. He was “relieved in the ordinary course of routine shortly after the surrender of Dost Mohammad” and returned to Bengal in 1841 “and thus escaped the fate which awaited the army of occupation”. Atkinson retired in 1847, and died in London in 1852. He is perhaps best remembered for his translations from Persian, of these his selections from the Shâh Nâmeh of Firdausi being the most notable, but he evidently possessed considerable artistic abilities. The renderings are skillfully composed, detailed and sensitively colored. Abbey Travel 508; Colas 173; Lipperheide 1493; Tooley 73.

$7500.00 -